This article was written for BleacherReport.com
Some people wonder what perks come with signing a BIG big league contract. I mean, one of the huge contracts. A funny-money contract that gets compared to the gross national product of nations and makes for selfies with bar receipts showing tips in the thousands because, you know, it’s chump change for you now.
Anyone who has ever wanted for money doesn’t need to hear about how having piles of it is a perk. We all get it. But because sports fame and money are all so intrinsically linked, you may not fully understand what it’s like to be, say, Giancarlo Stanton, who went from a well-paid prospect to plutocrat with a wave of his pen-equipped hand.
First, understand that to receive oodles of dollars in sports, you have to produce on the field. And typically if you’re producing on the field, people are going to know who you are. Athletes aren’t the Kardashians; they don’t get paid for doing nothing.
So when athletes do make the huge bucks, they’ve usually already carved out a niche for themselves in pop culture by playing sports hero. When you mix it all together—cultural impact, notoriety, money, sports heroism—you get the real perks of the game: access.
Roll back the clock. I’m in Boston with the Jays in 2009.
It was my first real taste of the bigs, so lots of things like having famous singers or actors show up to hang out at the club still blew my mind.
“Hayhurst!” Kevin Millar shouted at me from behind the Red Sox batting cage. He’d won a ring with the Sox and had more than 10 years in The Show, so he could merrily stroll over to the now-enemy team and hug and kiss like he was still part of the club. “Hayhurst, come ‘ere!”
En route, I walk by the head athletic coach, the guy whose job it is to run stretch and make sure we’re all ready to go. He is powerless to stop me in the face of Millar because Millar has been drinking from that punch bowl of big league power, money and success long enough that he can do what he wants and call it preparation. I obey Millar because of the same basic rule. I had less than a half-season in the big leagues by that point, so if Millar wanted me to go refrost his tips, I would have.